A string of technical hiccups made for an almost unwatchable day one of the first full-blooded Hearthstone tournament on IEM stage.
Around 10,000 Hearthstone fans tuned for the opening day of IEM Shenzhen Hearthstone as Blizzard's card game returned to the IEM stage for a proper, full-sized tournament, following the small four-man debut at Katowice in March. The stacked schedule provided by the organizers on their official page promised eight hours of Hearthstone action, featuring known and up-and-coming names alike, but the reality turned out completely different.
Technical difficulties at the venue - the Shenzhen Cartoon and Animation Festival - made for a delay of more than two hours and not until 05:30 CET did the games manage to start. With three games per group being streamed, the online audience of Shenzhen followed an upset-free start of the tournament with western favorites StrifeCro and Rdu topping their groups, followed by China's Xiao Soul as second from Group A and Hong Kong's Jackychan as runner-up in Group B.
Photo: IEM
This is when the problems reappeared. With long pauses between the matches, IEM Shenzhen was already behind schedule when the stream went off again in the middle of the Group C matches during a face-off between Gnimsh and Jeanno. The broadcast downtime lasted more than an hour, totaling up to almost 3.5 hours of no Hearthstone content during the opening day, leaving a bitter taste in viewership's mouth.
The broadcast was eventually revived and it picked off where it left off - the game between Gnimsh and Jeanno which ended with a victory for the Hong Kong player in the first upset of the day. Jeanno scored another surprising victory as he 2-0'd TSM's MaSan to top Group C and leave the two favorites under a dangerous question mark regarding their participation in tomorrow's playoffs.
Jeanno's triumph marked the end of day one, whose itinerary only covered three quarters of what was planned. The remaining Group C matches and the entirety of Group D will be played tomorrow.
NOTE: The losers match between Gnimsh and DongDong was played off stream and until now there have been no reports on its outcome. We've reached out to Gnimsh as well as IEM officials in attempt to learn the details and update the standings accordingly.
For up-to-date IEM Shenzhen coverage, follow the tournament through our coverage hub, GosuWiki page and Twitter.
